[ Home Page ]    [ History ]    [ The Project ]

Project Log:  Sunday, January 20, 2013

I continued with the wiring work.  To begin, I strung one additional two-conductor cable aft for the stern light, then led this into the console to secure it along with the other running lights.  I left the aft end of the cable loose in the lazarette for now, awaiting final connection sometime later.

Meanwhile, I made up several additional wires within the console, wrapping up the major wiring connection work with most of the circuits now run to their final connections and bundled within the console.  Afterwards, I installed larger cable (the ones marked "2" in the photos below)to connect the main service panel with the battery cable buss.

         


The system was now at  stage where, if I were to connect batteries, everything already installed should work.  That said, I still had a number of fixtures to install, including additional interior lights, pumps, fans, and other things.  But at least the wires were in place and connected at the "hard" end.  And surely other things would crop up in the meantime.  They always do.

The next stage of wiring centered around the diesel boiler's control board, beginning with the main power supply.  The instructions called for 10 ga. wire for the main power lines, which I didn't have on hand, but I did have 8 ga., so I used that.  The system came with its own special circuit breaker for the main positive cable, so I didn't need to run the lines through the main breaker panel.  I made up a length of cable to connect the breaker to the battery buss, then led another length down into the engine room and back to the control board, along with a black negative cable that I connected to the closest negative distribution buss. 

         

Because I had no power yet applied to the whole system, I made up the main power connections to the control board right away, as I knew I'd have the remaining wiring done before installing any batteries.  The instructions admonished that all the related wiring should be complete before applying power to the system.

I realized I'd forgotten earlier to install the supplied rubber boots over the two terminals of the heater breaker, so I removed the terminals and slid over the boots.


Next, I made up three additional wiring connections between the main power switch (engine heat/system heat switch on the console) and the control board.  During an earlier wiring stage, I'd led the wires from the switch to a convenient terminal block within the console, so now it was a matter of containing the runs from there to the appropriate terminals on the control board in accordance with the instructions and wiring diagrams.   

    

Next, I wired in the boiler's fuel pump, a non polar-specific pair of wires than I led to the appropriate terminals on the control board.

    

This wrapped up the work for the day.  In order to complete the heating system's wiring, I'd need to wire in the two fan heaters, along with the thermostat and one additional fan heater control, which I'd take care of next time.

Total Time Today:  5.75 hours

< Previous | Next >


The Motorsailer Project
Site design and content ©2010-2015 by Timothy C. Lackey.  All rights reserved.

Please notify me of broken or missing links or other site issues.
You can always find every day's project log links on The Project page.

Questions and comments | Home Page
V1.0 went live on 8/26/10